


just like us

by spacepilotprince



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Representation, Rogue One Spoilers, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9396953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacepilotprince/pseuds/spacepilotprince
Summary: Finn stares at the words, speechless. He can hear Poe and Rey chattering on about the Death Star, but can’t understand a word they say. Another defector? And nobody thought to mention him to Finn?“Why didn’t you tell me about Bodhi?” Finn demands, interrupting Poe.Poe blinks, cutting off mid-word. “...Bodhi?”“Bodhi Rook,” Finn asserts. “The pilot of Rogue One. Why didn’t you ever mention him?”Comprehension dawns in Poe’s face, and it stings in Finn’s chest. “Bodhi!” Poe gasps. “Kriff, I’m an idiot,” he hisses, pushing a hand through his hair. “How could I forget Rogue One?”===Poe tells Finn and Rey about the Rogue One crew.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello friends~ man, rogue one gave me some feels, and then i thought about the force awakens kids having feels as well, and this all happened. #representationmatters

Finn sighs and pulls the towel down from behind his neck. He hangs it on the hook near his dresser and uses the corner of the towel to dry the last of the water from his ears. The last of the steam curls out of the refresher, and he sees Rey close her eyes as she breathes it in, smiling.

“New soap?” she asks, curled up on the foot of Finn’s bed. “Your sheets smell like it too.”

“Nah, it’s some of mine,” Poe says with a grin from his desk, looking up from his tools.

“Ran out last week,” Finn mumbles with a shrug. “Haven’t had time to pick up a new bar.”

“Smells nice,” Rey says with a small smile, looking between the two of them.

“Been so busy,” Finn continues, sounding absolutely worn out. Poe looks over again, a bit of a frown about his brow. “New recruits are coming along well, but there’s these two that I just...” Finn sits heavily on the edge of his bed, scrubbing a hand through his damp hair. “I worry about them. The one is having a hell of a time grasping basic weapons maintenance, and the other is... Well, he’s just not at the physical level he needs to be.”

“That’s not your fault,” Poe says kindly. “You can’t expect everyone to be as incredible as you are, buddy,” he chuckles. “There’s always gonna be a few you’ve gotta hold back a bit, so they can learn before they get thrown out there with you.”

“I know,” Finn sighs.

“You’re really building an amazing corps, Finn,” Rey adds. “Quality over quantity, right?”

“That’s what I keep telling myself,” Finn says quietly.

First Order stormtroopers had come a long way from their Imperial ancestors, but the rule of quantity over quality still held fast. Quantity for expenditure’s sake. Finn, as a ‘trooper that had an exceptional level of quality for the system he was borne of, had devoted himself to building a corps focused on quality—quality of skill, and of interaction.

Finn drops his head into his hands, rubbing at his forehead. For all the quality interactions he’s tried to inspire...

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Poe asks carefully. “You’ve been quiet all evening, ever since you came back from training.”

“It’s...” Finn picks his head up and stares at the floor by Poe’s feet. “It’s really not much. I think I just got too used to you and Rey having no problems with my past,” he says with a shrug.

Poe frowns, something flashing in his eyes. “Who has a problem with you?” he asks sharply.

“I don’t think anyone has a  _ problem  _ with me,” Finn hedges, eyes shifting. “I think they’re...  _ uncomfortable _ , maybe...”

“With the fact that you were a stormtrooper?” Rey clarifies. “Despite the fact that you’ve shown not a scrap of loyalty to the First Order since you escaped?”

“There’s just been a few... interactions,” Finn says wearily.

“Finn,” Poe says firmly. “You don’t have to stand there and take it when people insult your integrity like that.”

“No, Poe,” Rey says quietly. “I know what he means. There have been people who are uncomfortable about me, too.” She pauses. “We’re outsiders. We’re new, which can be suspicious enough, but we also have a spotlight on us. We showed up and instantly got involved with a  _ huge _ mission at  _ Starkiller _ ,” Rey reasons. “Between that, Finn’s background with the First Order, and my Jedi abilities...” She shrugs. “It’s really no wonder that people are a bit wary of us.”

“Rey...” Poe says softly, apologetic. “Guys, I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve talked to those folks, helped explain—”

“It’s just something we deal with,” Rey says, spreading her hands. “It’s going to take time for people to trust us.”

“It shouldn’t have to,” Poe insists. “You’re  _ heroes _ . You were absolutely instrumental to what went down on  _ Starkiller _ . I can’t understand how anyone is having a hard time seeing that.”

“I’m not sure they’re having a hard time  _ seeing  _ it, Poe,” Finn explains. “I just think some people are having a hard time  _ rationalizing _ it with my past as a stormtrooper.”

“Well, it’s never bothered me,” Poe asserts stubbornly, pulling a small chuckle out of Finn. “I’m proud to call you my friends."

“That’s sweet,” Rey murmurs.

“I’m proud of you too, Poe. We both are,” Finn promises. “But it doesn’t always feel like we’re heroes, with everyone acting distrustful and weird around us...”

“Well, some... Some heroes are a bit... gray,” Poe reasons. “I mean... Well. Let me put it this way.” Poe has completely abandoned the project he’s been tinkering with by now, turned to face Finn and Rey. “People like to put others in little boxes in their minds. It makes things easier, because they can try to predict how others will act based on the box they’re in.”

“So people are uncomfortable that I was in the ‘stormtrooper’ box,  and now I'm climbing into the ‘Resistance’ box, a box whose inhabitants, including myself, make a practice of killing stormtroopers,” Finn says flatly.

Poe winces. “Well... yeah.” After a pause, he continues, “I mean, look at Luke, even. He was firmly in the ‘farm kid’ box when he showed up to the Rebellion, and it took him a little bit to convince them to rehome him in another box.” Poe shrugs.

“I’m not sure this is helping,” Rey says tentatively.

Poe sighs. “I’m probably doing a really shit job of cheering you both up, yeah. Here.” He grabs his datapad off the desk and tosses it lightly to Finn. “I’ve got a folder on old Rebellion heroes on there, stories my dad used to tell me that I’ve looked into more deeply. You might see if anything in there helps.”

Finn looks down at the datapad. He turns it on and keys in Poe’s passcode, locating the folder easily enough. He scoots back to prop himself up against the wall, and Rey curls up to his side, reading over his shoulder. Poe turns quietly back to tinkering with the droid part he’s working on.

There’s a fairly thick-looking subfolder entitled ‘Luke Skywalker’ that Finn figures is as good a place as any to start. Rey had brought the man back to civilization recently, after all, and he continues to be a bit of an enigma to Finn.

After growing up only hearing the name whispered in corners, a healthy amount of mysticism had always surrounded the man in Finn’s world. All he had heard of Skywalker had been from the perspective of people who were in the First Order. Luke had inevitably left a bad taste in their mouths. But those brief mentions put in the context of the Rebellion that Finn has now learned more of only leave him wanting to know more. He wants the stories told from the point of view of the side that held Skywalker as a hero amongst them.

Rey rests her chin on Finn’s shoulder as they read through the file. Finn hums interestedly every few lines, pointing out key things. The file is comprised of basic summaries of different events, with links to futher details. Finn scrolls through, pausing when he comes across the tale of how Luke helped destroy the Death Star.

“Now  _ this _ one, I know,” Finn murmurs.

Poe looks over in interest. “Hmm?”

“The Death Star,” Rey answers. “Of course you know that one.  _ Everyone _ knows that one.”

“Shut up, I’m not everyone,” Finn snips. “I guarantee I heard a wildly different interpretation of it than you did.”

“Oh yeah?” Rey teases. “Let’s hear it, then.”

“No way. You wanna hear mine? Tell me yours first.”

Rey sighs. “Alright.” She settles in comfortably. “When I was young, I lived with a scavenger woman named Rhys for a while. She taught me her ways and only took a small split of my profits in exchange for letting me live with her. Rhys told me stories from time to time, when I couldn’t sleep, or when the sandstorms kept us inside. My favorite stories were always the ones about Luke Skywalker.

“Rhys told me about the Death Star run. Luke was the best pilot in the Rebellion, and he led the attack fearlessly. He was incredible, shooting down TIE fighters left and right, trying to get an eye on any weaknesses in the space station... And then here comes Darth Vader himself, and Luke just  _ dives _ , straight into a trench. And he can feel it, he can feel with the Force, there’s some sort of opening up ahead... So he follows this trench, swerving left and right, hairpin turns down different spidering corridors, following that feeling... And then he finds it! And he flies right over the opening, sinks a thermal detonator straight down the shaft, and flies out of there with the explosion right on his heels!”

Poe blinks. Finn stares at her with a dubious expression. Rey, having sprawled out in her excitement, cools a bit.

“...Yeah, I bet yours was a bit different,” she concedes and straightens up, clearing her throat. “How did you hear it, then?”

“Definitely a lot differently,” Finn agrees. “First of all, Luke wasn’t some hotshot pilot. The way I heard it, he was just this nobody that the Rebellion picked up because they were scraping together literally anyone they could. They asked him if he could steer a ship, and then popped him into an X-Wing. He was basically a disaster, incompetent and sloppy, and it’s really amazing that he even managed to survive the thing. He got  _ lucky _ ,” Finn insists. “I mean, maybe he did use the Force. Whatever. Either way, he just happened to shoot into an exhaust port on a strafing run, and that port led down to some pretty delicate stuff.” Finn shrugs. “Just a lucky break.”

“You’re  _ both _ wrong,” Poe says, pained. “Wrong,  _ so _ wrong. Okay— Luke  _ was _ a pilot, although not a very experienced one at the time... He certainly wasn’t the squadron leader, but he could handle himself in an X-Wing just  _ fine _ , thank you. He really didn’t do anything spectacular overall in the dogfight, but he did manage to keep his head about him, and he did take to the trench to try to find the weakness. And he  _ did _ use the Force.”

“Ha!” Rey shouts triumphantly.

“Okay, well, yeah,  _ now _ I believe that,” Finn says impatiently. “At the  _ time _ , when I heard the story, it was an absolutely ludicrous idea.”

“ _ Anyways _ ,” Poe continues, “he found the exhaust port and fired his cannons into it, and succeeded where an earlier pilot had failed. Part of it might’ve been luck, sure,” Poe cedes, “but he  _ did _ use the Force. And it was incredible.”

Finn turns back to the datapad, frowning as he skims through the story. Rey and Poe start arguing the finer details of the story and Finn begins to tune them out. Everything Poe has said checks out, Finn finds as he clicks through the links for more detail and source material. One of the links related to the exhaust port mentions a mission with a crew referred to as Rogue One and he follows the link to learn more.

He’s greeted with a fairly small amount of information. He frowns. Most everything on this page seems to be theories and conjecture, with only very few things stated as fact. Finn sees a list of names, a theorized recreation of the events of the mission, and... not a whole lot else. There’s a pilot referred to, Bodhi Rook, and Finn clicks the name, figuring that’s as good a place to start as any.

_ Bodhi Rook, former Imperial cargo pilot, defected _

Finn stares at the words, speechless. He can hear Poe and Rey chattering on about the Death Star, but can’t understand a word they say. Another defector? And nobody thought to mention him to Finn?

“Why didn’t you tell me about Bodhi?” Finn demands, interrupting Poe.

Poe blinks, cutting off mid-word. “...Bodhi?”

“Bodhi Rook,” Finn asserts. “The pilot of Rogue One. Why didn’t you ever mention him?”

Comprehension dawns in Poe’s face, and it stings in Finn’s chest. “ _ Bodhi! _ ” Poe gasps. “Kriff, I’m an idiot,” he hisses, pushing a hand through his hair. “How could I forget Rogue One?”

“Rogue One?” Rey asks curiously, obviously in the dark.

“Yeah, Rogue One,” Poe says, almost weary just at the name. “The mission that stole the Death Star plans in the first place, the plans that told Luke and the other Rebels where to look for that exhaust port...” He scratches sheepishly through his hair. “I haven’t thought about Rogue One in a  _ long _ time, buddy, I’m sorry... There’s just so many stories, and here we are, making our  _ own _ , and... Things get forgotten until someone digs them up again,” he says with an apologetic shrug.

“What do you mean, things get forgotten?” Finn argues. “Isn’t that the point of compiling stories like this? So they don’t get forgotten? Or do you think  _ I’m _ going to get forgotten, everything I was, everything I still am? That the harder I work to move into a new place, the easier it’s going to become for people to forget just how hard I worked to get here?” he asks, hurt.

“Kriff, buddy,  _ no _ ,” Poe promises. “There are people who remember... People who matter, like General Organa. She  _ never _ forgets. I doubt a day has gone by that she hasn’t thought about old missions and the lessons she’s learned from them. I bet she thinks about Rogue One nearly every day, especially with you two running around...”

“Us two?” Rey prompts.

“Yeah.” Poe grins. “Some of the crew really... Well, let me just... Can I start over?” he asks.

Finn nods, switching off the datapad and tossing it aside. Poe takes that as an invitation, and he sets down his droid part and tools. He crosses to Finn’s bed and climbs up to join him and Rey, facing them, his leg pressed against Finn's.

“When I was a kid, I loved hearing all the old war stories. My dad hated telling stories about himself, so whenever I’d ask for stories, he’d dig up another old fossil about one of his comrades or a mission that led up to one he was a part of...” Poe chuckles fondly at the memories. “Rogue One was always my  _ favorite _ as a kid. Maybe it was because of all the mystique around it. They’re still not entirely sure what went on, but they’ve recreated it as best they can. Or maybe it was because of Cassian Andor.”

“Another pilot?” Rey guesses.

“Well, yes and no,” Poe says with a shrug. “He could fly a ship, sure, but he wasn’t anything to write home about. No, more importantly, he was an Intelligence officer in the Rebellion.

“Cassian was tasked with finding a woman named Jyn Erso, whose father, Galen, was working on the Death Star project. The Rebels wanted to get ahold of Galen, to try to prevent the completion of the weapon. The Rebellion got word that a message from Galen was being delivered to his old friend Saw Gerrera, and Cassian brought Jyn to meet Saw, to get them an in. Jyn alone saw the message from her father, delivered by the Imperial defector, Bodhi Rook. In the message, Galen said that he had sabotaged the Death Star by hiding a flaw deep within it, and he told Jyn how to locate it if she were to obtain the plans. Cassian chose to believe in Jyn.

“It was Jyn's word alone to say what her father's message had said, as it had been destroyed when Jedha was attacked soon after. Cassian supported her claim, but it wasn't enough. The Rebel Alliance couldn’t come to a consensus about how to proceed with the information about the Death Star plans, so their hands were tied. They wouldn’t send a fleet. But Jyn wouldn’t stand for that. She assembled her own crew, Rogue One, piloted by Bodhi Rook, crewed by Cassian and several other brave souls. They went to Scarif, where the Imperial databanks were, and they got the plans. Sadly... no one made it out alive.”

All three of them are quiet for a long time. Finn mulls this over. It follows the same line that Poe’s file does, vague but plausible. At least it makes sense why they wouldn’t have a lot of details, if everyone had perished on the mission.

“As a kid, I always idolized Cassian,” Poe continues quietly. “From the first mention of him in my dad’s stories, I was fascinated. Here was this guy, this completely badass officer who just knew what needed to be done and did it. He had so much hope, and so much strength...” Poe shakes his head, chuckling. “And then my dad dug up a holo of him, and he looked  _ so much _ like me...” Poe falls quiet for a moment. “That meant so much to me as a kid. Seeing this guy who looked like me and my family, this guy who had done so many good things, this guy who was a  _ hero _ ... And I saw that I could be just like him. He was always my inspiration growing up, through tough times at the Academy...”

“Do you still have any holos of the crew?” Finn asks. He wants to see Bodhi, wants to have a face in his mind, a face for a once living, breathing being that escaped the clutches of his oppressors, just as Finn did.

“I don’t personally, but I’ll bring you guys to see the records wall,” Poe promises. “Unfortunately, we don’t have such a good holo of Bodhi... He was only with the Rebellion very briefly, and I don’t think they found it fitting to use his Imperial identification photo...”

“Good,” Finn says gruffly. “I’d hope they wouldn’t’ve used mine, either.”

Poe laughs. “No, buddy, they... They’d use a different photo.” Poe touches Finn’s arm softly.

“Tell me more about him,” Finn requests quietly.

“Okay,” Poe agrees with a small smile. “There’s not much we know, but what we certainly  _ do _ know is that he  _ was _ an Imperial cargo pilot, until he defected.”

“Why’d he defect?” Rey asks.

“There are some notes from a rather rushed debriefing that indicate he was under the influence of Galen Erso. He was the one who carried the message to Galen's friend, Saw Gerrera, who showed it to Jyn. Bodhi indicated that he must’ve been fairly close with Galen, close enough for Galen to be able to inspire him to finally take the steps to defection.”

“Didn’t the Empire come looking for him?” Finn wonders.

“They definitely had a line out on him, yeah,” Poe chuckles. “But amidst all the chaos that ensued... The destruction of Jedha while they were still on the planet’s surface and whatnot... Well, they eventually lost track of him and presumed him dead, I’m guessing.” Poe shrugs.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Finn mumbles.

“I doubt anybody’s gonna be losing track of you soon, buddy,” Poe says with a wry smile.

“But he stayed with the Rebellion,” Rey presses. “Even though he was free now, he’d delivered his message, completed his mission, and he could go anywhere he pleased?”

“Well... Yeah.” Poe smiles, glancing at Finn. “He had people who had saved him, who had whisked him away off of Jedha when he was in a bad way. He had spent so long working to escape the Empire to deliver a message to the Rebellion, I’m sure he figured that it must be worth it to stick around and see what all the fuss was about. Sound familiar?” he teases.

“More than you know,” Finn murmurs.

“Y’know he was the one who gave Rogue One her callsign?” Poe adds. “There are comms records that identify him as the one speaking to ground control shortly before the ship departed.”

“And he piloted, obviously,” Rey says with a grin.

“Of course,” Poe laughs. “And he went down with his ship, presumably... Everything we can cobble together indicates that he was the primary person working on establishing a comms line to the Rebel fleet waiting above Scarif. He opened a line to them, told them to disable the planetwide shield so the plans could be transmitted to the fleet. There’s... not much more past that,” Poe says quietly.

“That’s... so little,” Finn mumbles. “That’s hardly anything. No wonder people forgot about him.”

“Everything gets lost to time,” Poe reasons with a small shrug. “But those who learn from history never really forget it.”

“Like the General,” Rey guesses, referencing Poe’s earlier comment.

“Exactly,” Poe says with a nod. “At first, all anyone knew of Bodhi was his past. Saw Gerrera was a Rebel extremist, and was incredibly distrustful of Bodhi at first—so much so that he tortured him to confirm Bodhi’s truthfulness. Baze, too, one of the crew that had joined Cassian and Jyn on Jedha, didn’t trust Bodhi’s background. But Cassian, who was trained in Intelligence, would later give a statement that he could imagine how hard it must’ve been to defect, and that the action itself was enough to warrant trust.”

“Like how you trusted me,” Finn remembers.

“And General Organa,” Poe adds. “She was Princess Leia back then, a member of the Imperial Senate, and she became the messenger of the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance. She learned a lot from Bodhi and his bravery. It’s no wonder she applied those lessons when presented with you, Finn... There’s no doubt she saw so much of Bodhi in you. She knew she could trust you.”

Finn swallows hard.

"And you," Poe says with a grin, turning to Rey. "I've got no doubt you remind her of Jyn..."

"Me?" Rey gapes a bit.

"Hell yeah!" Poe laughs. "The tough, independent young woman who can bring an ass-kicking down on anyone who warrants it?" He grins, though it softens soon. "The woman who grew out of a girl who lost her parents, lost all the family she ever had? The woman who thrived despite that, who always found a reason to keep going, to never give up fighting? And who was then thrust into the Rebellion and presented with the opportunity to effect change?"

Rey is silent for a long moment, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"She was reunited with her father, in the end," Poe adds quietly. Rey looks up and Poe offers her a small smile. "He never stopped loving her.  _ Never _ . And I doubt your family did either."

"That remains to be seen," Rey mumbles.

Finn carefully wraps an arm around her, pulling her in close. "Hey. You're not the only one who is missing their family," he murmurs, not unkindly. "We'll find them, even if it takes years. We'll get them back to you."

"That's right," Poe says, quiet and serious. "And in the meantime,  _ we'll _ be your family."

===

Poe takes Finn and Rey to see the records wall. Winding down rarely-used hallways, he leads them on a shortcut to the briefing room, and then into an empty room just beyond it.

Finn blinks. "Am I missing something?" he asks, staring at the blank wall.

Poe fiddles with a box in the corner, until suddenly a holograph spreads out along the far wall, glowing eerie blue in the darkness. Rey makes a quiet, awed noise next to Finn and takes a step closer, her eyes scanning the scroll of names.

"Portable," Poe explains, zooming in on a section titled 'Rogue One' with a small list of names in bold typeface. "For when we inevitably move bases."

Poe taps a few things on the projector, and there are images that surface, one for each name listed. There, staring out at them from the top line of names, are the faces of Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and Bodhi Rook.

Finn stares at Bodhi for a long time. He's  _ young _ , probably only a little older than Finn himself. He looks vaguely terrified, just a little bit, just around the eyes. It's a look Finn knows well. Something pangs in his chest for Bodhi, a sudden kinship with this man he never knew, and never will.

Finn's eyes shift over to Jyn and Cassian as well. They're also young, all of them seeming younger at least than even Poe, who Finn doesn't see as that much older than himself, despite Poe's griping about it. Despite the distant panic in Bodhi's eyes, all three of them look determined, and... hopeful.

"They were all so young," Rey whispers, echoing Finn's thoughts exactly. Finn reaches a tentative hand over to brush against Rey's, and Rey turns her hand so their palms slide together. She curls her fingers around Finn's, giving them a gentle squeeze.

"I've seen younger kids die for lesser reasons," he mumbles, thinking of all the cadets he'd seen just  _ wasted _ in the First Order. "They died for something they believed in... They sacrificed themselves for the good of the whole Rebellion..."

"Pretty inspiring," Poe says with a small smile. He rubs a hand over Rey's shoulder companionably. "Also pretty sad how rarely the story gets told nowadays. I mean, you heard me — I forgot to even mention it to you." He laughs humorlessly.

"It's..." Finn shrugs. "Stuff gets old. Replaced by new stories."

"Well, that, and..." Poe sighs. "Really, we know so little about what even happened on the mission. You probably skimmed through what little has managed to be recreated, what all was in that data file..."

"Tell us what they know, then," Rey asks quietly.

Poe turns back to the wall and lets his eyes roam over the crew. After a moment, he takes a breath and speaks.

"As I told you earlier, Jyn decided to go to Scarif, against the Alliance's decision. Bodhi and Cassian joined her, as well as all of the other crew members memorialized here. Rogue One was piloting a stolen Imperial cargo ship, and Bodhi, being a defected Imperial pilot, would've known the protocol to get them through the shield and into Scarif's atmosphere.

"Of course," Poe continues, "this is all... mostly conjecture from this point. But it's assumed that they landed with no troubles, and in fact that most of the mission went off without a hitch, based on how long it took the Empire to mount a response. It's fairly well assumed that Jyn and Cassian, accompanied by Kaytoo, the reprogrammed Imperial droid, were able to infiltrate the main records tower to steal the plans.

"Comms records recovered later from Imperial databases show that two Rebels had breached the records tower, and that the door had been locked behind them. The plans for the records tower show that the only exit is at the top of the tower, through a vent with a door that opens and shuts in a timed fashion. Jyn would've had to jump through there with the plans to reach the satellite for transmission.

"By this point, Bodhi had communicated with the Rebel ships amassing above Scarif and informed them of the plan to destroy the shield to allow the plans to be transmitted. Rebellion comms records indicate an X-Wing pilot clocking Jyn atop the tower, on a platform near the satellite, shortly before the plans were transmitted. The pilot lost track of her after that brief sighting. The plans were successfully transmitted then, but..." Poe swallows.

"The Death Star fired an attack on its own Imperial base, leaving none able to escape the surface. Bodhi had not been heard from in some time once the plans were received. No one had seen Cassian as they had seen Jyn, and as the Empire had caught on to their heist by then, it's doubtful that she even made it out of the tower. Everyone... All of these brave souls... They all perished on Scarif, but the Rebellion won that day. They got the Death Star plans, and they went on to destroy it, with the help of Luke Skywalker."

Finn and Rey are silent for a long moment. Finn realizes he's squeezing Rey's hand, and then that she's holding his just as tightly. He takes a slow breath in, something like pride burning in his chest. He looks at Bodhi's face; he thinks about his sacrifice.

"Hell of a tale to live up to, yeah?" Poe murmurs with a small grin, glancing over at Finn.

"I only hope I can be half as selfless and good," Finn says quietly.

"You already  _ are _ ," Rey insists.

"She's right, buddy," Poe agrees, stepping over to Finn's side. "You're one of the kindest men I've ever met. I'm sorry I never told you the story... Because I think anyone who hears it would equate you with Bodhi right off the bat."

Poe squeezes Finn's shoulder warmly, and Finn turns in towards him for a hug. Poe laughs and pulls Finn into his arms.

"Hey, now, it's okay. Tell you what," Poe says with a grin. "They built a sim for that tower vent. I've never managed to beat it without losing at least one limb. But I bet I know someone who could..."

"You're on," Rey accepts with a sharp, excited grin.

"She's been begging me to challenge her at the physical sims," Finn nearly grumbles. "I'm as strong as she is, for sure, but she's got me beat on agility..."

"Well, let's see what you've got then," Poe challenges her.

===

The sim gym is dead at this hour. Poe scrolls through the list of sims until he finds the program for the Scarif Tower Run. Finn runs his hand over the wall, smooth for the moment, the mats soft under his feet.

This is Rey's temple. She loves running the cave sims the computer provides, climbing to unfathomable heights while remaining, truly, only just a few feet above the mats. The wall shifts and manipulates itself into whatever projections the program dictates, forming ledges and footholds that flow downwards as the athlete climbs; the holographic projections give the appearance of whatever surface is desired, making the height appear more and more dizzying with every reach.

Rey loves it. Finn finds it a bit nauseating.

Finn steps back as the program boots up, the room forming itself around Rey as a ventilation shaft, a projection on the ceiling of a door that opens and closes rhythmically, and quite decisively. Finn swallows. He wouldn't want to be faced with having to hop through that death trap.

"Easy peasy, right, Rey?" Poe asks with a grin as Rey crouches and surveys the climb. "The vent opening will form solid around you, but the door is only a holo projection — it won't hurt you. It'll sure as shit clock anything you leave behind when it shuts, though, and let you know just how bad the damage would've been!" He laughs.

"We'll see about that," Rey quips with a smirk, and then she's off.

Finn watches, awed, at how easily Rey climbs. She's fluid, balanced, fingers and toes sure. She shows off a bit, Finn's sure, but she looks good doing it, strong and sure of herself. Finally, she's up at the vent opening, crouched and watching the door, calculating.

Finn realizes how tense he is, eyes wide and locked on Rey's form, and he jumps a bit when Poe's arm brushes his.

"This is it, now," Poe murmurs, quiet so as not to break Rey's concentration.

Rey's tongue darts out to wet her lips, and then she springs.

Finn clutches at Poe's hand.

Rey is halfway up. She repositions her grip. She hoists herself again.

She's out.

Poe's jaw is hanging open.

"I did it!" Rey cheers, jumping and punching the air.

"Holy shit," Poe whispers.

Finn looks down at their hands. Poe is squeezing his in return. He looks up at Poe's face, sees him beaming up at Rey, and it feels like the right time. Honestly, it's probably been the right time for a while now, with the two of them dancing around each other, awkwardly half-flirting... Finn bites his lip, and then just goes for it.

Poe's jaw is rough under his hands, but his lips are soft, warm and dry. Poe murmurs a small noise and sighs, sliding his hands around Finn's neck. Rey is still cheering in the background, but Finn has a feeling it's for a completely different reason now. The two part for a moment, enough for Poe to wet his lips slightly, and then next kiss is sweeter, slow and tender, though still slightly clumsy in the most endearing way.

"Been waiting for you to do that," Poe breathes, tipping his forehead against Finn's.

"Why didn't  _ you _ ?" Finn asks, his fingertips playing with the hair that starts to curl at the nape of Poe's neck. He's due for a cut soon.

Poe shrugs. "Felt right to wait... Wanted you to be the one to do it." He grins. "Course, if you had taken too long... I might've revised that a bit."

Finn laughs, and then Rey's arms are around him from behind as she hugs him tightly.

"Well, it seems we've all proven we're just as capable as the Rogue One crew, yes?" she asks cheerfully.

"I'd say," Poe chuckles, keeping close to Finn. "Between my charismatic intelligence skills, Finn's good-natured soldier heart, and your tenacity and climbing skills... I'd say we've got it covered."

"Then I hope we've got what it takes to be just as fearless," Finn says, stroking a hand along Poe's neck.

"Honey," Poe murmurs with a grin. "I've heard it said... Rebellions are built on hope."

**Author's Note:**

> i'm practically choking on that cheesy ending #sorry


End file.
